I attend my first SQL users group meeting on 02/26/08. This is a new users group in the Cincinnati area. I really enjoyed this meeting. So far most of my IT experience has been creating web sites but I've always considered becoming a DBA. I think I'd enjoy maintaining a database but haven't had the chance yet.

The guest speaker, Maria Stone, was also nice enough to zip up her PowerPoint presentation along with several example queries for the AdventureWorks database.

Topics covered during this meeting:

• Try – Catch
• Recursive Queries
• Temporal Data
• Ranking
• Pivot

Right now I'm just attending the meeting to get a better understanding of what SQL Server 2005 can really do. I know SQL Server 2008 has been released recently but for the company I work would not need the upgrade at this time.

There were many new things I was able to learn during the hour meeting but it also opened my mind to start to think in the direction of how to use the data versus just maintaining it.

If your using SQL and in the Cincinnati area feel free to attend these meeting on the fourth Tuesday of each month in Mason, Ohio. You can go to CincySQL for more information.